The Strength of the Wolf

by Douglas Valentine

  5 Roarke, Coin of Contraband, 393–5.

  6 Marks, Manchurian Candidate, 94. Interview with Ira Feldman.

  7 McWilliams, “Seeing Red,” 6.

  8 Tom Mangold, Cold Warrior (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991), 105.

  9 Dr. Harry Berger and Dr. Andrew A. Eggston, “Should We Legalize Narcotics?” Coronet, June 1955, 34.

  10 McWilliams, “Seeing Red,” 17.

  11 New York Times, 1 August 1955, 3:8.

  12 Alfred R. Lindesmith, “The Traffic in Dope,” The Nation, 25 April 1956, 228.

  13 Darrell Berrigan, “They Smuggle Dope by the Ton,” Saturday Evening Post, 5 May 1956, 42, 156–8.

  14 John O’Kearney, “Opium Trade: Is China Responsible?” The Nation, 5 October, 1955, 320–322.

  15 Berrigan, “They Smuggle Dope.”

  16 Smith, The OSS, 356.

  17 Scott, Deep Politics, 165–6. Alan Block, Masters of Paradise: Organized Crime and the Internal Revenue Service in The Bahamas (New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 1991), 161–73.

  11 ST. MICHAEL’S SERGEANT AT ARMS

  1 Ethan A. Nadelman, Cops Across Borders: The Internationalization of US Criminal Law Enforcement (University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1993), 134–5.

  2 Interview with Myles Ambrose. Nadelman in Cops Across Borders (135), quotes Ambrose as saying that “agents from the Bureau of Narcotics abroad could claim and did claim to be Interpol agents to give their work a veneer of legitimacy.”

  3 Jack Kelly in On the Street (48) said that Crofton Hayes had “cleaned out the vault in Newark of all the seized narcotics under his control.” He didn’t mention him by name, but Kelly also referred to Leo Palier as “an attorney who had graduated first in his class at Harvard,” and then “took up with prostitutes and had them working for him to support his habit before the Bureau forced him to retire.” A bachelor, Palier was known for rushing home at noon to feed his beloved cats.

  4 DiLucia joined the FBN in 1935, then served with the OSS in Madrid, posing as the Treasury representative. He may have been an undercover CIA agent in Italy.

  5 Toni Howard, “Dope Is His Business,” Saturday Evening Post, 27 April 1957, 38.

  6 Letter from Tartaglino to Siragusa, “Last night Frias and Salm knocked off El Etir and Omar Makkouk,” 19 June 1957.

  7 Manfredi, Official Personnel Folders.

  8 Luigi DiFonzo, St. Peter’s Banker (New York: Watts, 1983), 25. Claire Sterling, Octopus: The Long Reach of the International Sicilian Mafia, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1990), 190–202.

  9 Sterling, Octopus, 100.

  10 Williams, Official Personnel Folders.

  11 Millspaugh, Americans in Persia (Washington, DC: The Brookings Institute, 1946) 69.

  12 Ibid., 133.

  13 Kim Roosevelt, Counter-Coup: The Struggle for Control of Iran (New York: McGraw Hill Book Company, 1979), 44–6, 128–9.

  14 Interview with George Gaffney.

  15 Seymour M. Hersh, The Dark Side Of Camelot (Boston: Little Brown, 1997), 194.

  16 Mark Fritz, Associated Press, “Ex-CIA Official James Critchfield Dies,” 23 April 2003.

  17 Alan A. Block and John C. McWilliams, “On The Origins of American Counterintelligence: Building a Clandestine Network,” Journal of Policy History, vol. 1, no. 4, 1989, Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park and London, 367.

  12 GANGBUSTERS

  1 Scott, Deep Politics, 157.

  2 1964 Senate Hearings, 1010.

  3 Dan Moldea, The Hoffa Wars: The Rise and Fall of Jimmy Hoffa (New York: SPI Books, 1978), 69–70.

  4 Ibid., 74–7, 90–1.

  5 New York Times, 14 November 1957, 1:1.

  6 New York Times, 10 January 1958, 1:3.

  7 Tom Tripodi with Joseph P. DeSario, Crusade: Undercover against the Mafia and KGB (Washington: Brassey’s, 1993), 60.

  8 Charbonneau, Canadian Connection, 122–3.

  9 Memorandum report by Thomas J. Dugan, 5 February 1960. Thomas M. Dugan, also assigned to the New York office, was affectionately known to the Irish clique as “Tommy Ogg,” meaning “Young Tom” in Irish.

  10 Charbonneau, Canadian Connection, 79–82, 101–4.

  11 At this point a top NYPD narcotic detective reportedly made one of the most often quoted statements in FBN folklore: “Take it out back, lads, and give it a whack for me!”

  12 Memorandum to Mr. Mollo from Mr. Tendy, 27 April 1960.

  13 Charbonneau, Canadian Connection, 148–51

  14 Project Pilot III, 60. Charbonneau in The Canadian Connection (103) says “Mondoloni was associated with Santos Trafficante, Jr. who ran a rich Havana casino called the Sans Souci for … Meyer Lansky.”

  15 Charbonneau, Canadian Connection, 112.

  16 John T. Cusack, memo to H. J. Anslinger, 24 November 1958.

  17 Roarke, Coin of Contraband, 421–2.

  18 Charbonneau, Canadian Connection, 143 n. 19.

  19 Scott, Deep Politics, 201.

  13 ANGLOPHILES AND FRANCOPHOBES

  1 Among the documents in White’s Diary is a letter OSI officer Arthur Giuliani wrote to George White, dated 3 March 1958, saying that Siragusa “had worn out welcome with the Italians” and that the “local CIA boy” didn’t know if Manfredi or Knight would take over. The CIA “boy” was looking for recruits and, while Manfredi had more contacts, Knight had more finesse – so Giuliani recommended Knight to the CIA.

  2 Sal Vizzini with Oscar Fraley and Marshall Smith, Vizzini: The Secret Lives of America’s Most Successful Undercover Agent (New York: Arbor House, 1972).

  3 The secretaries were Mary Lapore, Ruth Bridentath, Monica Atwall, and Yolanda Palucci.

  4 Interview with Colonel Tulius Acampora.

  5 Anslinger, The Murderers, 223. Siragusa, On the Trail, 185–200.

  6 Block, Masters of Paradise, 30–8, 45–57, 68–72.

  7 Jonnes, Hep Cats, 172.

  8 Williams’s report, “The Narcotics Situation in South Asia and the Far East,” 25 July 1959, 19–23. The link dated back to 1943, when Vincent Scamporino and the OSS contacted Bonaventure “Roch” Francisci, a Corsican gangster who operated a charter airline, Air Laos Commerciale, between Saigon and points in Laos and the Golden Triangle.

  9 McCoy, Politics of Heroin, 176. New York Times, 20 May 1959, 3:4.

  10 Anslinger, The Murderers, 230.

  11 1964 Senate Report, 1131.

  12 Scott, Deep Politics, 167.

  13 Williams report, “The Narcotic Situation,” 25–6.

  14 McCoy, Politics of Heroin, 297–8.

  15 Peter Dale Scott, The War Conspiracy: The Secret Road To The Second Indochina War (New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1972), 207, n. 65.

  16 Tripodi, Crusade, 185.

  17 Scott, War Conspiracy, 15–20.

  18 US House of Representatives, The Committee on Foreign Affairs, The World Heroin Problem, Report of Special Study Mission (Washington, DC, GPO, 27 May 1971), 45.

  19 Memo from Knight in Beirut to Cusack in Rome, 4 December 1959.

  20 Jonnes, Hep Cats, 178. Interview with Paul Sakwa.

  21 Project Pilot III, 21, 65–7.

  22 Charbonneau, Canadian Connection, 155–6. Anslinger, The Protectors, 68–9.

  23 Herbert Brean, “Crooked, Cruel Traffic In Drugs,” Life Magazine, 25 January 1960, 94.

  24 Memorandum (in confidence) to White and Gentry from Deputy Commissioner Giordano, 23 May 1961.

  25 As identified in Project Pilot III (45–51), the four groups were: the Charles Marignani Organization; the Spirito–Orsini Group, including Marcel Francisci and “the Great Boss” in Rome; the Joseph Patrizzi Organization, including Mondoloni in Mexico; and the Aranci Brothers. The labs were run by Dom Albertini, who was said to be an informer for an investigating judge at Marseilles; Rene Gaston, a close friend of a police commissaire in Interpol; and someone unknown.

  26 Jonnes, Hep Cats, 185.

  27 Ibid., 184.


  28 Project Pilot III, 42–3.

  29 According to Gaffney, the case began in New Orleans when a woman with CIA connections offered information to agent Arthur Doll.

  30 Project Pilot III, 8, 367–372, 629; Colonel Manuel Dominguez Suarez was a major narcotics trafficker and in 1967 his source in East Berlin was Simon Goldenberg, known to the French as a communist agent. Arrested in May 1970, Suarez committed suicide at La Tuna Prison in Texas in August 1971. The Suarez case was said to have all the “earmarks of an intelligence rather than a heroin trafficking operation.”

  31 Chappell says the CIA gave him sanctuary afterwards, but he would not discuss the details.

  32 Agents from the FBN’s San Antonio office made regular forays into Mexico. Agent Jim Bland made about two dozen himself into border towns.

  14 A SHOOFLY IN THE OINTMENT

  1 New York Times, 21 February 1930, 1.

  2 Tripodi, Crusade, 21: “You kick in the door. If you make the case, fine. If not, you’re Detective Andrews from Homicide.”

  3 Memorandum to Mr. John E. Ingersoll, Director, Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, from Andrew C. Tartaglino, Chief Inspector, 21 November 1968, Subject: Integrity Investigation – New York Office History, Recommendations and Conclusions. The author obtained this document, portions of which were redacted, through a Freedom of Information Act request from the DEA. It is cited in the Interim Report of the Committee of Government Operations, US Senate, Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, 94th Congress, 26th Session, Federal Narcotics Enforcement (Washington, DC: GPO, 1976), 65–9.

  4 Tripodi, Crusade, 25.

  5 Interim Report of the Committee of Government Operations, US Senate, Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, 94th Congress, 26th Session, Federal Narcotics Enforcement (Washington, GPO, 1976), 65–6.

  6 Ibid., 68–9.

  7 Benjamin DeMott, “The Great Narcotics Muddle,” Harper’s Magazine, March 1962, 50–1. According to DeMott, Anslinger wanted a Seventh Day Adventist, Dr. Edward R. Bloomquist, to succeed him.

  8 Ibid., 48.

  15 THE MAGIC BUTTON

  1 Marks, Manchurian Candidate, 99.

  2 Siragusa interview by CIA officer Michie, 24 March 1977 (hereafter known as Michie Memo), document provided by Richard E. Salmi.

  3 Hearings before the Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research of the Committee on Human Resources, Human Drug Testing By The CIA, US Senate, 95th Congress, 1st Session (Washington, DC: GPO, 20 and 21 September, 1977),117 (hereafter referred to as Human Drug Testing).

  4 CIA Memorandum for the Record, Subject: Report on Plots to Assassinate Fidel Castro, 23 May 1967 (hereafter known as 1967 IG Report), 14–55, 70.

  5 Scott, Deep Politics, 90–1.

  6 Gus Russo, Live by the Sword (Baltimore: Bancroft Press, 1998), 246, citing 21 July 1961 FBN memo.

  7 Interim Report of the Select Committee to Study Government Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders, United States Senate, 94th Congress, 1st Session, Report No. 94–465 (Washington, GPO, 20 November 1975), 58–60 (hereafter known as Church Report).

  8 1967 IG Report, 38–9.

  9 Hersh, The Old Boys, 187–8. David E. Murphy, Battle Ground Berlin, CIA vs KGB in the Cold War (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1977), 217.

  10 “Notes in Draft re. ZR/RIFLE Project,” provided by the National Archives Assassination Records Review Board as part of the CIA Historical Review Program (hereafter known as Harvey’s Notes), 10.

  11 Dispatch from Chief of Station (deleted) to William Harvey, 11 October 1960.

  12 Harvey’s Notes, 8.

  13 Moldea, The Hoffa Wars, 127.

  14 Michie Memo.

  15 Scott, Deep Politics, 352 n. 35.

  16 Memorandum to David W. Belin from Mason Cargill, Subject: Search of Files for Materials Relevant to Assassination Plans, 1 May 1975, (hereafter known as Cargill Memo), photocopy from the Gerald R. Ford Library, document provided by Gus Russo.

  17 Richard Mahoney, Sons And Brothers: The Days of Jack and Bobby Kennedy (New York: Arcade Publishing, 1999), 91–2. Drug trafficker Robert Blemant (object of Paul Knight’s sting operation in 1959 and the founder of Les Trois Canards) is proposed as possibly QJ/WIN by Steve Rivele in “Death of a Double Man,” Washington, The National Reporter, Spring 1987, 48–50.

  18 “QJ/WIN,” 1977 HSCA Staff Report, provided by the National Archives Assassination Records Review Board as part of CIA Historical Review Program, 1994, 2.

  19 Harvey’s Notes, 4.

  20 New York Times, 18 July 1958, 8:2; 25 July 1958, 3:8.

  21 QJ/WIN’s 201 File (201-236504), provided by the National Archives through the 1994 CIA Historical Review Program, (hereafter known as QJ/WIN Dossier), Dispatch from Chief, WE, to (illegible), 17 July 1959.

  22 QJ/WIN Dossier, Classified Message from Director to Chief, WE, Luxembourg Narcotics Lead, 29 April 1959.

  23 QJ/WIN Dossier, Message to Commissioner of Narcotics from Deputy Director, Plans, Subject: Chinese Communist Narcotic Activity in Europe, 5 May 1959.

  24 Harvey’s Notes, 4.

  25 Church Report, 45.

  26 Siragusa, On the Trail, 199.

  27 New York Times, 30 March 1962, 68:1; 31 March 1962, 2:5.

  28 Dispatch from Chief of Station (deleted) to William Harvey, 11 October 1960.

  29 Letter from Cusack in Rome to Anslinger in Washington, 29 July 1960, 2.

  30 Cusack, letter to Anslinger, 29 July 1960, 11.

  31 Project Pilot III, 142.

  32 Henrik Kruger, The Great Heroin Coup: Drugs, Intelligence, & International Fascism (Boston: South End Press, 1980), 41–3.

  33 Garland Williams, Official Personnel Folders.

  34 Richard Stratton, “Altered States of America,” Spin Magazine, vol. 9, No. 12, March 1994, 87.

  35 Michie Memo. MKULTRA Document 87, Richard Salmi and Frank Laubinger, interview with Feldman.

  36 Stratton, “Altered States,” 97.

  37 Frias’s monthly report, 1 November 1958.

  38 Jonnes, Hep Cats, 197.

  16 MAKING THE MAFIA

  1 Selvaggi’s account of this incident makes it likely that he was the seaman who gave the FBN the tip-off it needed in the Frank Scalici case of 1957 (see chapter 12), information which subsequently led to Scalici’s assassination.

  2 Eboli reportedly was a liaison between the Mafia and the CIA.

  3 Though not charged in the Rinaldo–Palmieri case, Mogavero was sentenced to fifteen years in the 1964 Frank Borelli case, which Selvaggi initiated, and which stemmed from the Rinaldo–Palmieri case. Mogavero’s sentence, however, was reversed.

  4 Charbonneau, The Canadian Connection, 156 n. 2.

  5 In 1963, Selvaggi would see Simack (perhaps an alias for Szaja Gerecht) with Mexican Ambassador Salvador Pardo Bolland. A few months later he got a description of Simack’s plant-man, whom he randomly spotted one night and followed to an apartment in Riverdale. He broke into the apartment and found six empty traps. When he went back in 1964, after Pardo was busted in the Second Ambassador case, the traps were gone.

  6 Gosch and Hammer, The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano, 442–3.

  7 Charbonneau, Canadian Connection, 168.

  17 AGGRAVATING EDGAR: BOBBY KENNEDY AND THE FBN

  1 Anthony Summers, Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover (New York: Pocket Star Books, 1994), 67.

  2 Ibid., 155–6.

  3 Ibid., 175–6.

  4 Ibid., 220.

  5 DeMott, “The Great Narcotics Muddle,” 48.

  6 Summers, Official and Confidential, 272–82.

  7 Ibid., 267–8.

  8 Anslinger, The Protectors, 209.

  9 Tripodi, Crusade, 60.

  10 Davis, Mafia Kingfish, 139.

  11 Moldea, The Hoffa Wars, 138.

  12 Davis, Mafia Kingfish, 99–100.

  13 Hersh, The Dark Side, 192.

  14 Scott, Deep P
olitics, 179.

  15 Sandy Smith, William Lambert, and Russell Sackett, “The Congressman and the Hoodlum,” Life Magazine, 9 August 1968, 20–26.

  16 Interview with Tom Tripodi.

  17 Mahoney, Sons and Brothers, 46–9.

  18 1967 IG Report, 57–62.

  19 Mark Riebling, Wedge: The Secret War Between The FBI and CIA (New York: A. A. Knopf, 1994), 163–4.

  20 Moldea, The Hoffa Wars, 128–9.

  21 1967 IG Report, 63.

  22 Mahoney, Sons and Brothers, 46.

  23 Summers, Official and Confidential, 334.

  24 Russo, Live by the Sword, 66–7.

  25 Hersh, The Dark Side, 286–7.

  26 Mahoney, Sons & Brothers, 133, citing DOD Task #69, 3 August 1962.

  27 Church Report, 336.

  28 Block, Masters of Paradise, 161–73.

  29 Smith, The OSS, 307, n 1.

  30 Anslinger, The Protectors, 204, 75.

  31 Block, Masters of Paradise, 34–45.

  32 Scott, War Conspiracy, 210–12. Lee, Acid Dreams, 245–6.

  33 Warren Hinkle and William Turner, The Fish Is Red: The Story Of The Secret War Against Castro (New York: Harper & Row, 1981), 297.

  34 Block, Masters of Paradise, 72–3.

  35 Ibid., 51.

  36 Jim Hougan, Spooks: The Haunting of America (New York: Morrow, 1978), 212–14

  37 Block, Masters of Paradise, 49.

  38 Scott, War Conspiracy, 208.

  39 Scott, Deep Politics, 34.

  40 JFK planned to replace Air America with Seaboard World Services, whose director, John Davidson, died in a mysterious plane crash in March 1964.

  18 THE FRENCH CONNECTION

  1 Robin Moore, The French Connection: The World’s Most Crucial Narcotics Investigation (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1969), 9–15.

  2 Robin Moore with Barbara Fuca, Mafia Wife (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1977), 121.

  3 Gregory Wallance, Papa’s Game (New York: Rawson, Wade Publishers, Inc., 1981), 20–2, 27.